Ryan Scott Bardsley

VIRGIL realism at NATO's MEDCEUR exercise in Lithuania - VIRGIL™ was developed by a team of researchers and scientists from The Simulation Group at CIMIT (Center for Integration of Medicine & Innovative Technology). CIMIT’s mission is to apply advanced technology to medicine in effective ways. As part of this effort, The Simulation Group works closely with the US Army Medical Research & Materiel Command and the Special Forces Medical Command to create new methods to train medics for combat casualty care. The team’s research extends the limits of human computer interactions permitting realistic medical scenarios for safe, risk free familiarization and competency testing without the need for animal training. The VIRGIL™ system combines the use of a realistic mannequin with a PC-based graphical interface that tracks the internal position of chest darts and chest tubes during training exercises. VIRGIL™ provides realistic force feedback during the skin incision, dissection through intercostal muscle and pleura, and subsequent placement of a 36Fr chest tube.

Virgil R2 Concept to Prototype - Developed specifically for the military, the VIRGIL R2 chest trauma simulator prototype was rapidly developed for testing. SolidWorks models lead to space requirement designs, cooling mechanisms, and engineering specs. This prototype has been acquired by the National Museum of Medical History in Washington, DC.

SITU Smallpox Inoculation Training Unit - Thirty years has passed since smallpox inoculations were stopped in the US. When President Bush announced the return of smallpox vaccinations, there was a shortage of experienced smallpox inoculators since the most of the medical professionals who performed the last vaccinations had retired or left medicine. The Smallpox Inoculation Training Unit or SITU was developed for the DoD to provide training in the event of having to vaccinate the entire country for smallpox. The objective; deliver a system that simulates smallpox inoculation, provides facts about smallpox, and demonstrates safe handling procedures. The expected outcome is a trained population of skilled, informed, and confident inoculators. SITU offers a hands-on training system that allows the user to practice smallpox vaccinations using the exact supplies they will find in real-world settings. The arm form gives realistic feedback when jabbed with a bifurcated needle. Petechia forms as blood appears at the inoculation site indicating a good 'take'. The training kit includes everything necessary to perform 3 complete smallpox inoculations. Contents include an arm form, mock vaccine, bifurcated needles, a reconstitution kit, gloves, wipes, bandages, and proper disposal bags. A multimedia CD-ROM program containing smallpox facts and inoculation procedures is also included.

Virgil R4 - VIRGIL™ the first practical demonstration of a long-term research program, directly addresses the expressed needs of the Special Forces Medics to learn and practice safe treatment of combat chest trauma. The simulator combines sophisticated 3-D anatomic models generated from CT Scans of actual human anatomy with a mannequin built utilizing the same measurements as the computer models. Since the internal organs are proper in size, location, and density, mistakes that would happen in the real world will also happen realistically in the simulator. This anatomic realism contributes to “transfer of learning” from the simulated world to real world trauma scenarios. Through a collaboration between the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, MD and Boston Med- Flight, the Simulation Group participated in a series of controlled studies designed to validate the VIRGIL™ Chest Trauma Training System in a classroom environment. Participants responded enthusiastically to VIRGIL™ citing better visualization and increased understanding of the procedure. Preliminary results indicate the system met or exceeded existing lab training methods. Validation tests will continue into 2003.

CELTS Laparoscopic Skills Trainer Haptics Device - The system utilizes a five degree-of-freedom device and a software platform capable of 1) tracking the motion of two laparoscopic instruments 2) real time information processing and feedback provision. A validation study was performed. The results show that our metrics and scoring system represent a technically sound approach that can be easily incorporated in a computerized trainer for any task, enabling a standardized performance assessment method. CELTS is the foundation for a standardized global scoring system usable across different laparoscopic trainers and tasks.